I am sure you have all heard the saying ‘Be patient…good things take time!’ I am so pleased to see that after years of frustration the Rotary Clock in Berwick has been repaired and is now showing the correct time 24 hours a day, rather than the twice a day that it has shown for many years.
After the clock was moved from its High Street location, back when the intersection was widened many years ago, it has been extremely unreliable and no matter how many times it was fixed, it would not hold its time.
A ‘Snap - Send – Solve’ post got the wheels (or the cogs) turning again, once it was received by someone at the City of Casey. New parts were sourced for the internal workings of the clock and on 15th October the clock was repaired and is now back to its former glory, taking pride of place once again.
Now we just need to replace the flags either side of the clock face, as the City of Casey logo has changed and so too has the logo of the Rotary Club of Berwick.
Well done to that concerned member of the public and to ‘Snap – Send – Solve’ who do a great job at getting things done.
This week, we were delighted to have Past President Isobel Caulfield sharing with us what happens when you work in a BlazeAid camp. As we have recently gifted the refurbishment costs to BlazeAid for ‘our’ Combat trailer, the timing was perfect for Isobel to re-share the experience her and Mark had working at the fire affected camps at Wulgulmerang (Gippsland high country) and Adelong (Snowy Mountains NSW) and the flood affected properties at Coolah (Central NSW) and Woolgoolga (SE QLD).
BlazeAid is a volunteer-based charity that works with families around Australia after bushfires, floods and cyclones. They help communities by clearing debris and rebuilding fences, shoulder-to-shoulder.
BlazeAid was established in 2009 by Kevin and Rhonda Butler after the Black Saturday bushfires. They had approximately 3 kilometres of fencing burnt on their property, allowing hundreds of sheep to get out onto the roads, causing a traffic hazard and impeding fire trucks and other emergency service vehicles from continuing their response to the fires. The repairs to their fences were expected to have taken the Butlers around 3 to 4 months, however, Kevin put an advert in the local paper requesting assistance. He had a wonderful response from the community, with around 25 volunteers coming to help, and the fences were rebuilt within a week. It was Rhonda’s idea to pay the favour forward, saying, “We have had help, now let’s give our neighbours a hand too.”…and BlazeAid was born.
Since 2009 BlazeAid has helped 15,169 farmers with the rebuilding of 21,529 kilometres of fencing. All of this has been done by remarkable people like Mark and Isobel and over 42,000 other volunteers from Australia and from around the world. How good are volunteers!
Out and about this week, our members and other volunteers have been busy delivering and collecting Art Screens from multiple locations.
On Sunday 17 members and friends enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Marengo Redoubt, a small winery in Moorooduc. Our hosts, Rosslyn and Andy Thompson provided us with a delicious lunch, complete with a selection of their lovely wines. As a special treat Ros arranged for a trivia session for us, which was lots of fun. Thank you to the members who came and supported this event.
Remember there is no meeting at Lava Café this Wednesday, due to our winery lunch and also due to some of our members attending the Rotary South Pacific Conference in Melbourne this weekend.
See you either at the conference or at our next meeting on Wednesday 4th November, where, in the lead up to Remembrance Day, we will learn all about ‘Fallen Diggers’ from their current President, Dennis Frank. Thousands of Australian service members remain unaccounted for from past global conflicts. This group of volunteers works to ensure that these forgotten soldiers do not remain nameless. Dennis will share with us the work that Fallen Diggers do to bring peace and closure to the families of missing service men and women.
Looking forward to seeing you all again then.
